Anthropic has released Claude Duet in research preview, according to a Zapier Blog hands-on by Wade Burrell, a Zapier product marketing manager. Zapier sells automation that plugs into Duet, so read its comparisons with that in mind. Duet is a separate app from the Claude chatbot, though you sign in with your existing Claude account.
What it does
Instead of waiting for a prompt, Duet sends a morning brief summarising the most important items across connected apps. It checks those accounts every few hours and messages you only when something needs attention. You choose what it reports and how often. The work runs inside its own virtual machine that you reach through a browser, meaning your phone or laptop can be switched off while it continues. That browser also lets it fill in forms on sites that have no connector.
The app has three tabs: Chat (text or voice), Tasks (background work) and Make, which holds templates such as a daily to-do list and email triage. Tools, projects, memory and skills from your Claude account carry over. Onboarding pushes four first-party connections: Gmail, Slack, Calendar and Google Drive.
Safeguards
Anthropic states that Duet can read, write drafts, and get work ready without asking first, yet it presents its plan and requires sign-off before sending a message, issuing a payment, executing a document, or removing any data. Trading securities and moving money between accounts stay off-limits even with approval. Duet connects through OAuth, so it does not see passwords or sign-in tokens, and any app can be disconnected. Anthropic also reports prompt-injection screening, a classifier for sensitive data and testing by internal red teams and an outside firm. The reviewer's advice is to check what it does, especially early on.
Access and cost
Access is by waitlist for U.S. Pro, Max and Ultra subscribers, on iOS, Android and claude.ai. There is no separate price. Duet shares your plan's limits, and background checks count against them. The reviewer's first couple of days used up all of his session limits, and the app did not make clear which limits applied.
Early findings
After a few days, the reviewer found setup quick and the proactive behaviour useful. Overnight, Duet matched Google security alerts to the connections he had just made and summarised them unprompted. The Tasks tab starts empty and offers to scan your tools, and two tasks were running by that morning. The downsides were the fast limit use, a Gmail connector limited to one account, and the general risk that an agent misjudges urgency. These are a few days of first impressions on a preview product, not a verdict.